User:SpiderTracks

October 29, 2013

In reviewing my article on Wikipedia about Geotokens, I saw a note that a User Page, for my User Name here, doesn't exist. So I am creating it today. (See "About Me" below my comments as to why I'm creating the page now).

I'm not sure what a User Page typically provides, but I think anyone looking for it would like to know something about me and how such information relates to the article (just one so far) that I've submitted for Wikipedia.

Perhaps information about me here can help with some of the "Multiple Issues" my article has. As I've only submitted one article for the site, I'm unfamiliar with most of the tools the site uses to address the issues, such as linking to other articles. But since the Geotoken article is mine, and because I believe it is relevant within the popular sport of Geocaching, I will work on how I can address the issues.

Tonight in looking at the article and reading some of the notes under the Talk and History tabs, I came across a tool to see article viewing history back to December 2007. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the article has had a good number of views each month.... appearing (without doing the math yet) to average around 150, running over 200 in a few months, up into the 400's for a few months, and as high as 570 in one month. This has prompted me to get active in resolving issues with the article.

ABOUT ME

My Wikipedia username, SpiderTracks, is also my(along with my wife) Geocaching user name. We were very active in that sport from March 2002 through most of 2006. While we've become largely inactive since, I have continued to follow the sport through my Geocaching account.

During my active years, our Geocaching name was well known and respected in Utah. Even though SpiderTracks was the user name for my wife and I together, in terms of "finding" caches, I was individually involved in a number of other elements of the sport. I especially took advantage of using the sport as a creative outlet. And being retired (US National Park Service, and US Forest Service), I put a lot of energy into my ideas and contributions to the sport.

I was an active member of UTAG - Utah Association of Geocachers, and any other of the members during my active years will be familiar with our username, as well as some of my own achievements and creative contributions in our area.

I live in Vernal, Utah. In 2002 the sport of Geocaching was only a couple of years old. And while there was a good number of caches placed in central (I-15 corridor) Utah, there were only a few in Northeastern Utah. By 2004, a map of geocaches in Utah should an unusually high concentration of caches in our area which is rural. I was responsible for hiding a number of caches (60), I am fairly sure that my activity inspired others to become involved. I'm happy to note that even a current geocaching map for the state, still shows a notable cluster of geocaches in our area - unusually high for rural parts of the state.

http://www.geocaching.com/map/default.aspx?lat=40.4131&lng=-109.69255&z=16#?ll=40.50962,-109.91272&z=8

A number of my caches were unusual, as a result of my creative approach. Some of these were quite popular. Others were seen as challenges not appealing to the average geocacher. I do feel the creative element of many of them was appreciated by many.

I became especially interested in "trackable items" namely Travel Bugs that move from cache to cache, with movements tracked on line. In the spring of 2003, I found out that I was the leading "finder" of travel bugs in the state of Utah...

One form of trackable items, is a Geocoin. I really like the idea of the coins. They were finely made of metal and were very popular trading and/or collectables items in the sport. But at a price of around $5 or $6 each, I didn't feel I could afford to have some made for our username. But the coins gave me an idea of making such a "signature item" more affordable. I soon found that I could make my "signature items" for around 50 cents a piece. They were made of paper, with artwork to match our username, and (unlike Geocoins) were suitable for displaying a good deal of information about the Geocacher and his/her activity in the sport. I came up with the name of Geotoken for these items. I did some online research on the word(s) as geotoken, Geo Token, GeoToken, and found only a couple of mentions of the word. So I can't say that I didn't create the term Geotoken.

However, I am very confident that I made the use of GeoTokens very popular in Utah and Southwestern. Of the Geotokens shown in the photograph in the article, 18 of the 25 were created by me. The Geotokens were made in sets of 100, serially numbered, and created to reflect the nature of the various Geocachers for whom they were made. One, user, TH&G of Rock Springs, Wyoming, used several thousand of their tokens, designed and made by me, and therefore turned up in all the geocaches they found for several years.

Especially, rewarding for me (and my idea), is that a number of users, such as DeVidDe, Hunting SOB, Black Diamond, GeoMalt, Bubblez, and McWeb, designed and made geotokens of their own. I believe each of these were inspired by the geotokens I'd designed and made. One reasons for that belief, is that the wording on the back of their tokens, explaining geotokens, were all much the same as what I'd thought up for my own.

Geotokens designed and made by me have my initials, slr, small on the lower right edge off the front side.

Earliest Evidence of My Geotokens

In reviewing my computer files, I find the earliest date on any of my art work, showing a date of August 15, 2002. That was not for the first set of tokens I made, which would have been for my own Geocaching Name. I would have done the art for my own before that date. However, because I changed computers around that time, all the files for my own tokens have the earliest date of January 2003.

My first Geocaching log, mentioning leaving a Geotoken is August 31, 2002 for a now inactive geocache, GC6512 named Jogger's Trail at the following link.

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LUID=ee73fbf6-0bf4-4ceb-ae21-eb09a7d5837c

You will notice two other logs for that cache on the same date that mention placement of Geotokens - both sets of which were designed and made for me for other Geocachers. One being my wife's initial Geocaching username FrogFace (before joining with me), the other being for my son and his family, TeamRhino. All three logs refer to the respective users' geotoken #2. We each kept our #1 tokens for ourselves.

In searching the Geocaching forums this evening, I find the earliest mentions of geotokens to be September 2003. The first entry is asking what geotokens are. The second entry gives a general description of what they might be. The third entry is by Jeremy Irish, founder of Geocaching, stating that he didn't (at that time) know what geotokens were. The fourth entry describes one geocacher's awareness of geotokens and even mentions my username for an example of some that have made geotokens. The remainder of the thread supports some of my comments about why geotokens might be preferred over more expensive geocoins.

http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=55128

In additional internet searches at this current date, I find a few articles, and websites mentioning geotokens, and a lot of images of geotokens. Two of the first three images are mine, which might be reflective of mine being among the earliest usages of this specific kind of signature item for geocaching.

Other sites, make me aware now, that I may have had an opportunity to take my idea of geotokens to higher levels. But the fact is, my involvement was quite fullfilling, and I had little interest in doing what would be necessary to seriously promote and market them.

I am not hung up on any question that I am in fact the first creator of geotokens. Instead, I am just trying to explain my background, and perhaps the verification that one editor has asked for. Perhaps someone at Wikipedia can guide me through how to write the article to address that and other issues, based on what I've put here on my User Page.

To further evidence my credibility, my creativity, and the effect that it, and the SpiderTracks reputation in the sport, I'm happy to report that we had a very high attendance level at the UTAG's Fall 2004 Meeting that I organized here in Vernal.

http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GCK1NC_utags-fall-2004-meeting

The significance of such high attendance is that Vernal is 180 miles from the metropolitan areas of Utah, where the greatest concentration of attending geocachers lived. The attendance level was commensurate to what would occur at such an event held in Salt Lake City.

The reason for the high attendence is that one of my creative ideas, placing 3 special Event Commerative Cards in each of many of the local geocaches (specific to each cache). An example of one of these sets is on the page for the event cache cited above. They show the level of energy I put into the sport. But they are also made in much the same way as I made geotokens. My ability in soliciting help in placing these Commerative Cards in the caches is another indication of the local enthusiasm for the sport, and respect shown to us as notable geocachers. The cards were highly sought after by people attending the 2004 Event Meeting. Typical UTAG events in the metropolitan areas of Utah usually involved a couple of hours of socializing, and would provide some opportunity for attendees to hunt for other caches while in the area. For the event in Vernal, which was held on a Saturday, many attendees came to the area several days in advance, camping or staying in local motels, in order to hunt for the Commerative Cards in many of our local caches. This part of Utah is very beautiful, but because of its distance, and placement off major traffic routes, many of those that had attended, visited the area for the first time in their lives.

The reason, I've written all of this is a precursor to my addressing the issues for the article title Geotokens, and to show credibility for my creating them in this general area, and in having the knowledge to write about them. When I researched the word geotoken, I found no evidence that such items had previously been made.

This is a first draft.

My real name is Steve. Somewhere I saw my entire real name in documentation for the article here at Wikipedia, but I can't seem to find it again. Seeing it in the first place, made me wonder about the need for me to create this User Page. But in what I've written here, you can see that I feel others needs to create the page. One being, a way to address one of the oldest issues with the Geotoken Article, a source to document that the tokens were popular in Northeastern Utah and Southwestern Wyoming.

Since, I'm the creator of tokens in this area, I don't really know how else to document myself as the source of that observation of their popularity.